An estimated 15,000 surgeries cancelled during fourth COVID-19 wave: health minister

The Alberta government is revealing just how many surgeries needed to be cancelled due to COVID-19 overwhelming hospitals.

Health Minister Jason Copping says around 15,000 procedures needed to be postponed in order to create capacity during the fourth wave.

“To put that into context, in the first three waves, 30,000 surgeries were postponed. It’s challenging dealing with COVID, but our system can respond to that,” explained Copping.

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“Of the 30,000 postponements that were done in the first three waves, we had largely caught up on the number of people that been waiting for surgeries by August.”

Copping says it is incredibly unfortunate that more surgeries had to be cancelled but the government is working on a plan to not only get caught up but also exceed moving forward.

At the peak of the fourth wave, the province cancelled all scheduled elective surgeries in Calgary and closed around 75 per cent of operating rooms at the Alberta Children’s Hospital.

On Wednesday, Copping had announced that all cancer surgeries have fully resumed.